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Roland de Roncevaux. The statue of Roland, is located in the centre of the town hall square in front of the House of Blackheads in Riga, Latvia. Photo by Patrick Mayon
When Roland felt that the battle came,
Lion or leopard to him were tame;
He shouted aloud to his Franks, and then
Called to his gentle compeer agen.
“My friend, my comrade, my Olivier,
The Emperor left us his bravest here;
Twice ten thousand he set apart,
And he knew among them no dastard heart.
For his lord the vassal must bear the stress
Of the winter’s cold and the sun’s excess
Peril his flesh and his blood thereby:
Strike thou with thy good lance – point and I,
With Durindana, the matchless glaive
Which the king himself to my keeping gave,
That he who wears it when I lie cold
May say ’twas the sword of a vassal bold.”
The Song of Roland, trans. John O’Hagan, verse 91, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 31
